India\'s Reliance to buy Hamleys toy store chain

An Indian oil company is buying a British toy store.

The tale makes more sense when you know the shop in question is Hamleys - famed worldwide.

And the buyer is Reliance Industries - a giant firm best known for oil, but set on becoming a consumer champion too.

The Hamleys chain is currently owned by Chinese group C Banner International.

It bought the toy stores for just over 130 million dollars in 2015.

Hamleys has 167 outlets in 18 countries.

But C Banner has since gone cool on British acquisitions.

It dropped plans to buy 51% of department store chain House of Fraser, sending the group into administration.

In 2018 it wrote down the value of Hamleys to about 90 million dollars.

Reliance is paying just a little less than that in the new deal.

That's just small change for owner Mukesh Ambani - India's richest man.

For him the deal is all about reducing Reliance's dependence on oil.

It's known for operating the world's largest single-location crude refinery.

But it's venturing into retailing and telecoms with a string of new ventures.

Reliance Brands chief Darshan Mehta says the Hamleys deal puts it in "the frontline of global retail." Critics will ask if shops are the right target though.

Famous stores around the world are shutting down or scaling back as online competition grows ever more fierce.